|
 Global warming goes way beyond "An Inconvenient Truth". We are overheating our planet to alarming levels with catastrophic consequences. 11 of the past 12 years have been the hottest on record. Think of an overheated car (and what we drive), an overcooked dinner (and what we eat) and someone sick with a fever (and how we act). Now imagine that on a planetary scale.
Global warming is perhaps the biggest social, political, economic and environmental problem facing our planet and its inhabitants. Global warming refers to the increasing average temperature of the Earth's air and water. People are becoming increasingly aware of and concerned about global warming and its consequences, despite corporate misinformation and right-wing obfuscation, due to frequent reports regarding record heat, wildfires, an increase in the number and severity of storms, droughts, the melting of glaciers, permafrost and polar ice caps, rising sea levels, flooding, changes in wind direction, acidification of the oceans, endangered species, spreading diseases, shrinking lakes, submerged islands and environmental refugees. We may be standing at a precipice. At the close of 2006, there were reports of at least three major events that dramatized the present threat of global warming: 1) the Indian island of Lohachara had to be evacuated before being submerged, creating over 10,000 refugees; 2) the massive Ayles Ice Shelf broke off from the Canadian Arctic; and 3) the Bush Administration, which has been resistant to addressing global warming, and generally hostile toward the environment, agreed that polar bears are "threatened", mainly due to melting ice caused by global warming, and moved to protect them under the Endangered Species Act. Global warming is also endangering penguins, seals, walruses, salmon, elephants, frogs, butterflies, birds and many other animals, threatening up to one-third of all species. In contrast, increases in carbon dioxide and heat levels will lead to an increase in the number and range of mosquitos, further spreading discomfort and disease. This comes on top of other recent catastrophes: the collapse of ice shelves in Antarctica and Greenland; unprecedented weather events around the world, such as Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma; killer heat waves, causing among other things, a bust of the ski season in Europe and the deaths of 35,000-50,000 people in Europe in the summer of 2003; the disappearing of glaciers (about 80 per cent of the world's glaciers are shrinking); severe drought in Australia and elsewhere; and other ominous signs of disaster. 2007 is also not boding well with droughts, fires, floods, storms and more. "Such a path is not merely unsustainable," according to Harvard Professor John P. Holdren, president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, "it is a prescription for disaster." Humanity is threatened as perhaps never before and major changes have to occur to put our imperiled planet on a sustainable path - and soon. Even though a small number of individuals argue against global warming, there is a scientific and environmental consensus - among all major scientific and environmental organisations, journals, and magazines and all peer-reviewed scholarly articles - that global warming is real, serious, worsening and caused by human activity. The evidence is overwhelming. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its Fourth Assessment Report in February 2007, which was researched and written by about 2,500 climate scientists over the past six years and vetted by over 130 governments. The Report carefully delineates clear trends and potentially catastrophic consequences associated with climate change, warning of the possibility of irreversible change, unless we make concerted efforts to counter global warming. The IPCC makes it plain that the current and projected climate change is not simply "natural variation," but "very likely" (meaning at least 90 per cent) the result of human activity. The case is closed on the problem of global warming, with only the solutions to still debate.  It therefore should not be surprising that the US Pentagon states that global warming is a larger threat than even terrorism. "Picture Japan, suffering from flooding along its coastal cities and contamination of its fresh water supply, eyeing Russia's Sakhalin Island oil and gas reserves as an energy source," suggests a Pentagon memo on global warming. "Envision Pakistan, India and China - all armed with nuclear weapons - skirmishing at their borders over refugees, access to shared river and arable land." The Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, has said that climate change needs to be taken as seriously as war and, further, that "changes in our environment and the resulting upheavals from droughts to inundated coastal areas to loss of arable land are likely to become a major driver of war and conflict". Fighting global warming may be one way to prevent future wars, simultaneously increasing energy security and physical security.
Progressives have additional causes for concern. The people most affected by global warming are the poor and socially disadvantaged, since they are in the weakest position to guard against environmental damage and will likely suffer the most harm. In the underdeveloped world, and perhaps especially in China, India and Southeast Asia, as well as much of Africa and the Middle East, global warming will negatively affect urban drinking water systems, agricultural output and commercial and other transport on rivers. Further, increased suffering and increasing numbers of environmental refugees, along with greater anxiety over access to food, water, land and housing, the material essentials of life, often lead to unstable conditions that give rise to anger, ethnic violence, terrorism, fascism and war. "It's the poorest of the poor in the world, and this includes poor people even in prosperous societies, who are going to be the worst hit," said IPCC Chair Rajendra Pachauri. Those who needlessly degrade and destroy the environment to satisfy their own selfish pleasures are like the pre-revolutionary Queen Marie-Antoinette, declaring, "Let them eat carbon dioxide"! Yes, we need our governments, corporations and other organisations to get actively involved in fighting global warming. Yes, the US - the largest contributor to global warming - and Australia need to join 169 others and ratify the Kyoto Protocol. Yes, we need to stop deforestation and increase reforestation. Yes, we need more resource conservation and more energy-efficient cars, appliances, electronics, batteries, and light bulbs and, yes, our society needs to switch from fossil fuels and to renewable ones, such as solar, wind, tidal, biomass, geothermal and others. But while we are struggling for these important and positive large-scale social changes, we also need to say "yes!" to personal changes. In fact, the latest IPCC report states that "Changes in lifestyles and consumption patterns that emphasize resource conservation can contribute to developing a low-carbon economy that is both equitable and sustainable." A major study showing how personal "changes in lifestyles and consumption" can affect global warming is in the 2006 UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) report, entitled Livestock's Long Shadow. It states that animal based agriculture causes approximately 18 per cent of the greenhouse gas emissions which lead to global warming, an amount greater than that caused by all forms of transportation on the planet combined (about 13.5 per cent). Cars are still problematic, of course, but cows and other animals raised for human consumption are contributing more to global warming, thereby causing more damage to our existence. Therefore, what we eat is actually more important than what we drive and the most important personal change we could make for the environment, as well as for our health and the lives of animals, is a switch to vegetarianism. The world is feeding over 50 billion farmed animals, while millions of people, disproportionately children, starve to death each year. Over one-third of the grain produced worldwide is inefficiently and immorally diverted to feed farmed animals, to satisfy appetites for money and meat. The FAO study reports that the livestock industry, in total, uses and abuses roughly 30 per cent of the planet's surface, thereby "entering into direct competition [with other activities] for scarce land, water and other natural resources." Further, overuse of the land by livestock, leading to overuse of fuel and water, also degrades the land and pollutes the water around it, contributing to additional environmental and health problems. An animal based diet also uses energy very inefficiently. To produce grains and beans requires only 2to 5 per cent of the fossil fuel required to produce beef. Reducing energy consumption is not only a better choice in terms of fighting climate change, it is also a better choice in terms of being less dependent on foreign oil and the vagaries of both markets and dictators. Additionally, the editors of World Watch (July/August 2004) concluded that "The human appetite for animal flesh is a driving force behind virtually every major category of environmental damage now threatening the human future - deforestation, erosion, fresh water scarcity, air and water pollution, climate change, biodiversity loss, social injustice, the destabilisation of communities and the spread of disease." Lee Hall, the legal director for Friends of Animals, is more succinct: "Behind virtually every great environmental complaint there's milk and meat." While growing concern about global warming is welcome, the many connections between the increasingly globalised western-style diet and global warming have generally been overlooked or marginalised. The production of meat contributes significantly to the emission of the three major gases associated with global warming: carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O), as well as other eco-destructive gases such as ammonia (NH3), which contributes to acid rain, and hydrogen sulfide (H2S), which has been implicated in mass extinctions. Indeed, according to the United Nations Environment Programme Unit on Climate Change, "There is a strong link between human diet and methane emissions from livestock." The 2004 World Watch publication State of the World is more specific regarding the link between animals raised for meat and global warming: "Belching, flatulent livestock emit 16 per cent of the world's annual production of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas." Likewise with the July 2005 issue of Physics World: "The animals we eat emit 21 per cent of all the carbon dioxide that can be attributed to human activity." Eating meat and other animal products directly contributes to this environmentally irresponsible industry and its devastating impact on the environment, including the dire threat of global warming. While carbon dioxide is the most plentiful greenhouse gas (currently about 35 per cent higher than pre-industrial atmospheric levels), methane is 23 times more powerful (about 150 per cent higher), and nitrous oxide is a whopping 296 times more potent (about 20 per cent higher), than carbon dioxide in terms of global warming potential. With the livestock industry emitting such a huge amount of methane and given that methane degrades relatively quickly in the atmosphere (in approximately 12 years as compared to hundreds or even thousands of years for carbon dioxide), a sharp decrease in animal consumption, and therefore subsequent livestock (re)production, would provide thenecessary near-term alleviation from global warming potentially "spinning out of control". Changing from the typical western diet to a vegetarian or, better yet, vegan diet, according to geophysicists Gidon Eshel and Pamela Martin at the University of Chicago, does more to fight global warming than switching from a gas-guzzling Hummer to a Camry or from a Camry to a Prius. It has been said that "eating meat is like driving a huge SUV... [and] a vegetarian diet is like driving a [hybrid]", while a local, organic, vegan diet is like riding a bicycle. Shifting away from SUVs, SUV lifestyles, and -efficient, life-affirming alternatives, is essential to fighting global warming. Planetary sustainability and the well-being of humanity are greatly dependent on a shift toward plant based diets. One easy and effective way to fight global warming every day is with our forks and knives! If we don't, the "procrastination penalty" will be painful. It is increasingly clear that eliminating, or at least sharply reducing, the production and consumption of meat and other animal products is imperative to help reduce global warming and other grave environmental threats, in addition to benefiting one's physical and spiritual health. Mark Twain once quipped that "Everybody talks about the weather, but no one ever does anything about it." Now we can.
Dan Brook, Ph.D., is an author, speaker, activist, community mediator and instructor of sociology. He also maintains Eco-Eating at www.brook.com/veg, and welcomes comments: brook@california.com
Richard H. Schwartz, Ph.D., is the author of Judaism and Vegetarianism, Judaism and Global Survival and over 150 articles located at www.JewishVeg.com/schwartz. He is President of Jewish Vegetarians of North America, Coordinator of the Society of Ethical and Religious Vegetarians at www.serv-online.org, and can be contact: president@JewishVeg.com
|
